Architect Aneta Slavova and the different face of architecture today ‎

published on 2/12/24 11:02 AM

Photo: Archplay Academy

"Architecture can be an accomplice or an adversary. In the past, people had to overcome their internal resistance to enter a municipal building. We show buildings that invite you to enter and whose architecture can be called the third teacher, because architecture can really change people", says the curator of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, Kjeld Kjeldsen, and explains: "The first teachers who influence a child are their parents, their own family. The second teacher are the educators, and the third teacher is the surrounding architecture." ‎

If we listen to these words and they reach a wider circle of people - designers, architects and urban planners, the current appearance of modern cities could begin to change, helping to improve the environment wе live in. ‎

Aneta Slavova, with her 40 years of professional experience as an architect and 20 years as a teacher, admits that at the very beginning of her career in a large architectural organization, she initially did not appreciate the importance and mission of urban planning, but she quickly understood that it lies at the heart of making a specific public place or residential area preferred by the people. ‎

"I have tried to initiate student workshops in many places, and one of them was interdisciplinary with architecture students, designers at the National Art Academy, musicians, landscape architects, urban planners", recalls architect Slavova in an interview for Radio Bulgaria. "We were given a task "Sofia plays". It was in 2016-2017 and the goal was to look for a new approach to playgrounds, to improvise with the students how to make these playgrounds for all ages, not only for the little ones. That is, to feel good, to feel how we will imperceptibly move out bodies and laugh." ‎

Aneta Slavova with students during the workshop

"The key theme and philosophy in architecture is creating an environment, not simply forming a line of houses and streets and plots. This should not happen in the education of architects," she adds. ‎

Therefore, quite not accidentally, she decided to restore an earlier tradition, started by her husband, architect Stefan Popov, in the Experimental Educational Design Studio, the first in Bulgaria created by him, to develop new effective methods of teaching architectural design at the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy. Both the studio and Professor Popov are no longer with us, but the memory of the students' practice there for 11 years does not fade, and Aneta continues to receive inquiries about when and how this workshop will continue. It was revived in 2020.‎

"Many things have changed, but the methodology remains intact. The stereotype, the way of life of generations has changed. The philosophy of every typology of public buildings has changed - in urban planning, in residential buildings, so this change, combined with the methodology that gives a decision on how to create a project and what new philosophy to incorporate into it as a setting. This is what Archplay offers", Aneta explains. "That's why the word play, i.e. the game in architecture, it mostly challenges me to think about how to organize such an educational event in the summer vacation, because it does not interfere with the educational process in the universities, and the students had the right to choose whether to come or go to the seaside or other places where they can rest."‎

A new interruption follows, which will last until the summer of this year, when everyone interested will once again be able to get immersed in the knowledge of the different face of architecture in the modern days when it must be an accomplice rather than an adversary of the people.

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Photos: Archplay Academy

Translated and published by Rositsa Petkova

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